If I only knew then....

1963Topps Set · #1 03-02-2015, 05:55 AM

Actually I did know then. In the 1970s, I started collecting in 1971 at age 8, I grabbed every vintage card I could trade for or buy for the measly money I had as a child. I did attend shows and haunted shops in town as well as kids in the school yard. By 1981, I had a decent developed vintage collection which I was able to hold on to and build upon when I returned to collecting in full force in 1993.

steve B · #2 03-02-2015, 10:22 AM

After so long, it's basically every vintage card or bit of old memorabilia I didn't buy.

But I have to look at all the stuff I did buy that turned out well.

The biggest ones I missed?

Well............

When I started, T206 Hof players in vg were usually $10 including Young, Cobb was a bit more, but not much. Commons were 1.50 and only a handful of backs were more.

So I have to pick the really big things I either missed or didn't buy.

1912 Red Sox world series pennant ----$100?! for a pennant??! crazy.

A few Goudey Ruths when they were around 100. The dealer handed me at least 4-5 of them over the years just saying it's 100 you should buy it. Never did.

Bobby Orr Topps rookie card. Really nice, and also 100 at a time when that would have bought the 33G Ruths. Just too much for a hockey card, even if it was rare and Orr.

A boxful of those little felt backed Topps Football cards. Weird, at the time expensive for football cards, but not too bad, for some reason I didn't get them. Maybe because they weren't in any guides, didn't fit any sheets well, something dumb like that.

As with everyone else, 86 Fleer basketball. In the mall McCrorys had a whole island of them. Probably hundreds of boxes. I bought a few packs, figured I'd go back and get some more if I liked them. They were cool, but the packs repeated so out of maybe 8 packs I opened I got a couple extras. Decided a couple days later that I'd get more, maybe a box or two and see if I could finish the set. None left. I still have two unopened packs plus the cards I got. No Jordan.

Those are some of the ones that stand out.
The 86 Fleer was a common thing everyone missed, and if it hadn't had Jordan in it nobody would even think twice about having passed on them.

Steve B

Exhibitman · #3 03-02-2015, 11:15 AM

When I first started working as a lawyer and had good money and no responsibilities [1990] I would tell myself to sell every card I had and take the proceeds plus every dime I had and buy a T206 Wagner, a Ruth rookie, and as many Ruth and Cobb signed checks as I could get. Then hold 20-25 years, sell, and retire.

GasHouseGang · #4 03-02-2015, 11:17 AM

I'd go back and tell my 17 year old self, pick up one of those 52 Mantles you have the opportunity to get. Yeah, I know they went to $3K and now they are less than $1,000. But they will go back up....I promise.

Tim Fritz · #5 03-02-2015, 02:38 PM

I'd go back to late 1980 and early 1981 when I was 9 and not tear apart all the Magic/Bird rookie cards. My 8 year old self kept wanting to put all the players together with the rest of their team and they therefore had to be ripped apart. I ripped apart 5 or 6 of them. Ugh.

And then in 1986 I'd tell the grocery store manager across the street to carry the '86/87 Fleer basketball cards. They never had them. They did have the '87/88 cards the next year. I never knew about the '86/87 set until I met some kids that lived on the other side of town.

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